1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable storage medium issuing system and an issuing method to issue a portable storage medium such as an IC card having at last a built-in memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years a so-called IC card equipped with a built-in non-volatile data memory and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for controlling thereof is utilized in various fields as a portable storage medium.
This kind of IC card is normally issued by card issuing agents using IC card issuing systems. It was the general procedure for issuing IC cards using a system to issue IC cards in order by writing issue data into IC cards in order of issue data registration starting from a designated card based on the issue data registered (stored) in advance in a card issuing system.
When writing issue data into IC cards (the card issuing) in an IC card issuing system, the top card and the number of cards to be issued were so far designated among a plurality of issue data stored in an IC card issuing system. IC cards were issued in order starting from this designated card up to the designated number of cards to be issued.
However, such an IC card issuing method as this is based on the assumption that all cards with issuing data written subsequent to the designated card become subjects for issue. So, if issue data for IC cards that are not to be issued become subjects for issue, such an issuing method was so far used that IC cards were issued after the issuing process was once terminated and then, IC cards to be issued were designated again. Therefore, if a plurality of issue data contained those data that were not to be issued, the work efficiency of IC card issue was extremely deteriorated.
Further, when issuing IC cards, it was also based on the assumption that all issue data stored for every IC card became the subject for issue. Therefore, there was such the problem that even when there were some issue data requiring no card issue, they might be written into IC cards. Furthermore, it might become necessary to create a new issue data file excluding unnecessary issue data and thus, the IC card issuing work efficiency was deteriorated.